“Those articles are being planted,” Paterson said on John Gambling’s radio show. “People close to me are not talking to the media. People who say they are close to me who have other agendas are doing that.”

He added, “How many times do I have to say that I’m running?”

He was also asked about his sluggish fundraising, and again blamed it on the Senate coup in June, saying he had to cancel a number of events as he dealt with the turmoil in Albany.

As reported today, Senate Republicans are teaming up with county clerks around the state to protest Democrats’ plan to increase fees on licenses and require people to get new ones when their vehicle registrations expire.

This morning, Sen. Stephen Saland, R-Poughkeepsie, put out two news releases, saying he and Columbia County Clerk Holly Tanner and Dutchess County Clerk Brad Kendal, will be distributing petitions. Saland has one on his Web site.

The state’s financial picture continues to get gloomier with projections today that the five-year deficit will balloon by 16 percent from projections just three months ago.

Gov. David Paterson’s budget office today is expected to release a mid-year report that shows the state’s deficit will grow to $44 billion over the next five years — an increase of $6 billion from projections in July.

He has called lawmakers back to Albany on Nov. 10 to close the current year’s deficit. The Democratic governor has proposed cutting aid in education and health-care to close a third of the gap, with the rest coming through proposals for new revenue and sweeps of money from other state accounts.

While state leaders grapple with this year’s fiscal woes, the long-term picture appears even worse, largely because the state is relying on federal stimulus to help close current budget gaps.

This year’s spending plan, which runs until March 31, uses about $6 billion in federal stimulus aid to help balance the budget.

But when the stimulus money runs out in the 2012-13 fiscal year, state deficits are expected to soar, with a two-year deficit of about $34 billion.

NYPIRG, Citizens Union, Common Cause and League of Women Voters today sent a letter to the Legislative Ethics Commission calling on it to investigate whether Sen. Hiram Monserrate, D-Queens, has illegally set up a legal defense fund as he faces sentencing in December for misdemeanor assault involving his girlfriend.

The groups said Monserrate should disclosure of the names of the contributors and amounts of the donations and ban the creation of legal defense funds.

Sen. Neil Breslin, D-Albany, said he plans to put in legislation to do just that.

There’s just one problem: The state doesn’t have the money to pay for it.

And Paterson said this afternoon during a meeting of legislative leaders that the state’s two-year budget gap has increased to $10 billion, compared to about $6.7 billion in July.

Paterson, however, said in a statement earlier in the day that when economic times are better, the state should put in place the so-called circuit-breaker program, which would limit a homeowner’s property taxes to a percentage of their income. He said the measure should be approved along with his call for a cap on state spending.

Depending on future state surpluses, the measure could save homeowners between $500 and $1,500 a year in property taxes, he estimated.

“Albany is notorious for two things: overspending and overtaxing. My legislation solves both,” Paterson said in a statement.

At the leaders’ meeting, Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson, D-Brooklyn, said he recognizes that the state now faces a $3.2 billion deficit, but warned of cuts that would hurt schools and health care.

He said the impact of the health-care cuts would be more like $744 million because of federal matching funds compared to the $287 million proposed by Paterson.

“That could be the difference between a paycheck and a pink slip for some of our health-care workers,” he said.

Asked by Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb, R-Canandaigua, if he support $3 billion worth of cuts, Sampson said “Maybe you’re with it, but we’re not with cutting services to children, to seniors, education. These are things that will have a serious impact on our constituents in the state of New York.”

Paterson ended the roughly 45-minute session by imploring leaders to agree to his cuts, saying nobody likes having to make deep cuts to programs that impact people’s lives.

He’s called a special session for Nov. 10.

“This is going to be a painful budget process,” he said. “Nobody wants to do any of the things that we’re doing. ”

He later told reporters that he’s pleased lawmakers agree with two-third of his proposed budget plan. Cuts aside, the rest of his plan calls for raising revenue and sweeping funds from other accounts.

The National Organization for Women in New York, The New Agenda and The Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Committee have started their own petition drive and letter asking Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson to have Sen. Hiram Monserrate, D-Queens, removed from office.

Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said that since 1991, only 35 percent, or $11.6 billion, of the money in the state’s Dedicated Highway and Bridge Trust Fund went to repair the state’s roads and bridges.

The rest covered state debt payments as well as operating expenses at the state Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Transportation, DiNapoli said.

The trust fund was created in 1991 to fund the construction and development of state roads and bridges and was to be self-sustaining through taxes and fees. But starting in the 1994-95 fiscal year, the fund began paying debt for bonds from the state Thruway Authority, and later operating expenses for state agencies, DiNapoli said.

The report comes as Gov. David Paterson recently said the state doesn’t have the money to fund a $25.8 billion five-year capital plan for roads and bridges.

“This money should be going toward keeping our roads and bridges safe, not to fund state agency operations,” DiNapoli said in a statement.

Gov. David Paterson’s proposed mid-year budget cuts are facing pushback from Senate Democrats, with Senate Finance Chairman Carl Kruger, D-Brooklyn, this afternoon warning that the Senate will not go along with some of the cuts to education and health care.

After two public hearings this week on the budget, Kruger said the Senate will “develop a deficit reduction plan to close the budget gap without disrupting vital services or imposing any new fees or taxes. And most significantly, the hearings are being conducted in public for all to see and contribute.”

He said more than 100 groups have testified over a two-day period so far. In Long Island, he said parents and children with developmental disabilities spoke about what the cuts would mean to them. And he attached a clip of a mother speaking during the session, which is below.

“There is no doubt that we have to make substantial cuts, but the task at hand is for them to be fiscally responsible and fair. We are in agreement on nearly $2 billion of the Governor’s $3 billion gap closing proposal. But it is no surprise that some aspects of his proposal are simply not acceptable,” he continued.

“Dramatic reductions to higher education opportunity programs for low income students and developmental disabilities services are poorly devised ideas passed off as solutions,” Kruger said in the statement.

“Also, the governor’s Medicaid and healthcare cuts place disproportionate pain on hospitals and nursing homes given they have weathered a number of cuts already. We have to do better and those who do not recognize that responsibility lack the imagination or inclination to come up with new answers to old problems.”

Among the potential Republican candidates for governor next year, Erie County Executive Chris Collins is looking to regroup after comparing Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to Adolf Hitler and an Antichrist, and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani won’t say whether he will run until after next week’s election.

In the meantime, GOP candidate Rick Lazio is out picking up endorsements. After getting the endorsement in his home Suffolk County, the former congressman today announced the backing of Orange County Republican Chairman Bill DeProspo.

Add Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, Monroe County, to the list of political leaders who want Sen. Hiram Monserrate, D-Queens, to resign after he was found guilty earlier this month of misdemeanor assault involving his girlfriend.

“As a co-author of the Violence Against Women Act, I find it offensive that Sen. Monserrate has not already resigned, “ Slaughter said in a statement this afternoon.

“Domestic violence is unacceptable from anyone, let alone from an elected official of the State of New York. Sen. Monserrate should resign immediately for this serious offense, and if he does not, he should be removed from office by the Senate.”

Monserrate drew strong criticism from good-government groups this week after it was reported that he has set up a legal defense fund and that it was allowed by the Legislative Ethics Commission.

“Secretly authorizing a private legal defense fund is beyond outrageous, even by Albany standards,” said NYPIRG’s Blair Horner. “We see no legal basis for ignoring the gift ban law and allowing wealthy individuals to pay a legislator’s legal bills. The Legislative Ethics Commission has conspired to create a million-dollar loophole in the gift ban.”

But the Legislative Ethics Commission put out a statement late yesterday saying it never authorized the defense fund.

“By statute, opinions of the Legislative Ethics Commission are confidential. Such confidentiality ensures that individuals subject to our jurisdiction seek guidance and advice from the Commission with respect to the laws we administer,” the statement reads.

James Lawrence has, for the past 14 years as Editorial Page editor, been responsible for producing more than 5,100 daily Editorial and Speaking Out pages. He started his journalism career in Cleveland shortly after graduating from Howard University in Washington, D.C. Along the way, he has had career stops in Denver, Orlando, Fla., and White Plains. But unquestionably, he says, some of his most rewarding years as a journalist have been here in Rochester, being a part of positive change. That change has included reforms that followed an aggressive “Challenging Albany” campaign, greater public awareness and pushback against the coarsening of our culture, and strides being made to make this region a destination community.

Jane Sutter became deputy editorial page editor in June 2009. She also has served as managing editor and general manager/custom content at the Democrat and Chronicle. She writes editorials on many topics, with a focus on health and education, helps plan and edit copy on the Editorial and Speaking Out pages, oversees the Board of Contributors and assists Editorial Page editor James Lawrence in managing the department. She has worked as a reporter or editor for newspapers in Iowa, Illinois, Florida, South Carolina and Elmira, where she was executive editor of the Star-Gazette. She recently received her master’s degree in media management from the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

Cara Matthews has been a statehouse correspondent in the Albany Bureau since August 2005. Prior to that, she covered Putnam County government and politics at The Journal News for nearly five years. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them.

Brian Tumulty has worked in the Gannett Washington Bureau since 1992, first as a national business writer and then as a regional reporter for newspapers in New York, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. A native of the New York City borough of Queens, he attended high school on Long Island and college in the Bronx. He has four children and one granddaughter.